72-535: Myrtou ( Greek : Μύρτου , Turkish : Çamlıbel ) is a town in the Kyrenia District of Cyprus , north of the city of Morphou . It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus . There are several traditions as to how the village got its name. One of them says that the name comes from the plant Myrtos or Myrtia – myrtle . On the western side of the village there is a whole area full of myrtle as well as other plants and bushes. This particular area
144-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
216-558: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in
288-560: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
360-540: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near
432-464: A limited number of people because the administrator of the monastery's property was the Metropolis of Kyrenia. When the Metropolis decided to start dividing the land to smaller plots, the village begun to grow bigger and bigger. People could buy a plot of land build their house and stay in their village rather than to move to the towns. In 1881 there were 69 buildings in the village and the population
504-540: A new monastery. With them they brought pieces of the holy bones of St Panteleimon. The two monks tried to find a quiet place in the Lapithos and Karavas area but with no result. They moved on to an area today called AERAS, which was full of wild vegetation. Tired and thirsty as they were they sat down and prayed to their Saint to help them. As they were praying they saw water coming from the marble stones next to them. They drank water and thanked St Panteleimon for his help. In
576-520: A second wave of refugees . Another three centuries passed and Crusader king Guy of Lusignan purchased Cyprus from Richard the Lionheart , leading the former to import Maronite warriors to the island to protect its coastlines. The last wave of emigration came 100 years later when Acre , last outpost of the Crusader edifice , collapsed leading to the last migration of Maronites to Cyprus. Kormakitis
648-512: Is a small village in Cyprus . It is under the de facto control of Northern Cyprus . Kormakitis is one of four traditionally Maronite villages in Cyprus, the other three being Asomatos , Agia Marina and Karpaseia . The Maronites of Kormakitis traditionally speak their own variety of Arabic called Cypriot Maronite Arabic (CMA) in addition to Greek and recently Turkish and they follow
720-804: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout
792-773: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system
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#1732801689486864-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During
936-600: Is done to coincide with the start of the agricultural season, the farmers pray to Saint George for a successful harvest. According to the tradition, after Mass, the Maronites have lunch by the sea to celebrate Saint George. The Chapel of the Holy Virgin is a small chapel situated in the west of the village. The chapel was thought to have been built in 1453. Recently renovated it is frequently visited. The Chapel of Saint George, often referred as Chapel of Saint George of
1008-409: Is known as Mersinia . According to the writing of ancient writers myrtle was a plant dedicated to Goddess Aphrodite and God Apollo . There is a probability that in this area was a sanctuary dedicated to Apollo and even a small village with the name Myrtos. Myrtou area was inhabited prehistorically. The present Turkish name Çamlıbel means "area with pines", and the village is currently on the edge of
1080-490: Is located southwest of Kyrenia at a height of 270 metres above sea level. It is on the south side of the Pentadaktylos mountains and because of its position was considered to be the administrative centre of the area before 1974. From the village there is easy access to Nicosia through Asomatos and to Kyrenia through Panagra . It was also connected with Morphou through Diorios . The village for many years had
1152-519: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to
1224-544: Is related to the Phoenician settlement of Kormia. The present village would take its name from the expression Kormia jdide , or "New Kormia". These hypotheses seem consistent with the pronunciation of the village in Cypriot Greek ( Κορματζίτης /Korma'dʒitis/) and Cypriot Turkish ( Kormacit /Korma'dʒit/). The standard Greek name Kormakitis is an attempt to adjust the name to standard Greek pronunciation, whereas
1296-947: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Kormakitis Kormakitis ( Cypriot Arabic : Kurmajit ; Greek : Κορμακίτης , Kormakítis ; Turkish : Kormacit or Koruçam )
1368-526: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around
1440-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
1512-650: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with
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#17328016894861584-552: Is used by the remaining inhabitants. Icons and religious items dating from the 12th century are located within the cathedral. The Chapel of Saint George, often referred as Chapel of Saint George of the seeds, is a chapel situated near the Mediterranean Sea , north of Kormakitis. It was built in 1852. Every year, on 3 November, a Mass is celebrated by the Maronite Community dedicated to Saint George . This
1656-535: The British administration in Cyprus, the Maronite Community was promoted by the British government, whose policy was to support minorities. This resulted in better living conditions for the population of Kormakitis. By 1910, Kormakitis relied on agriculture and livestock, which produced grain, olives, beans, cotton, cocoons and other crops. After Cyprus gained independence in 1960, projects were carried out within
1728-532: The Catholic Maronite Church . Cape Kormakitis is named after the village. All of the remaining Maronite villagers are elderly . The Republic of Cyprus government gives those who stayed in the north pensions of $ 670 a month per couple and around $ 430 for an individual. It also pays instructors to teach CMA, and funds week-long summer visits by young Maronites to put them in touch with their communal roots. Maronites also receive help from
1800-495: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It
1872-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
1944-707: The United Nations . Every two weeks UN troops make the trip from Nicosia to deliver food, water, fuel and medical supplies across the border to the north's Maronite population. The UN aid convoy is manned by soldiers from the 12 Regiment Royal Artillery . Aid is funded by the Republic of Cyprus government but is delivered by the UN. During the weekends the population of Kormakitis increases to more than 600 as displaced former residents return to visit relatives and celebrate Mass. Access has been made easier since 2003 when
2016-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in
2088-470: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into
2160-502: The Akdeniz National park with its pine forests and woodland walks. Archaeological excavations in two areas of the village Stephania and Pighades brought to light valuable findings. Oxford Ashmolean Museum and a mission from Sydney Australia University carried out the excavations. The finding proved the religious political and trading connection of Cyprus with other islands of Greece and especially Crete. Myrtou village
2232-812: The French feudal Denores. The Maronites at the time held 60 villages with a reported number of 60,000 and was the second largest community after the Greek Cypriots . In 1570, Kormakitis had 850 inhabitants. During the Ottoman rule of Cyprus, the number of residences decreased; in 1841, there were only 200 inhabitants. Villagers who remained were highly taxed and harassed by Ottoman Turks and Greek Cypriots alike. The number of Maronites across Cyprus decreased simultaneously: In 1572, there were between 7,000 and 8,000 Maronites, living in 23 villages, while, in 1596, there were 4.000 Maronites, living in 19 villages. Under
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2304-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
2376-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than
2448-442: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
2520-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow
2592-685: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community
2664-583: The Turkish Cypriot authorities relaxed rules on visits to Northern Cyprus. Many Maronites who were displaced from Kormakitis have renovated and upgraded the village and homes for weekend use. There are several versions for the name of the village. The most common instance of folk etymology is related to the Maronites who arrived from Kour, Batroun . Feeling nostalgic, they used to repeat the sentence "Nahni jina wa Kour ma jit" "We came (to Cyprus) but Kour hasn't come". Another instance of folk etymology
2736-546: The Turkish army invaded the island in response to the coup d'état. Despite the restoration of constitutional order and the return of Archbishop Makarios III to Cyprus in December 1974, the Turkish troops remained on the island occupying the northeastern portion of the island. This resulted in the island being divided into its Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities respectively. Many of Kormakitis's residents choose to migrate to
2808-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
2880-560: The aftermath of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus . However, the Maronites have to meet a certain criteria. Firstly, they need to be the legitimate owner of a house or property in the village to be allowed to resettle. Secondly, they also have to move back to the village and reside there. Maronites are not allowed to reclaim their property and then commute to and from Kormakitis to the Republic of Cyprus controlled areas. Some 40 people, mainly elderly couples, meanwhile, have permanently resettled in
2952-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of
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3024-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of
3096-618: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute
3168-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in
3240-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn
3312-476: The internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus . Before the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Kormakitis had around 1,000 inhabitants. The number of Maronites has since decreased. It is estimated that between 100 and 165 Maronites remained in the TRNC. The decline in population has been attributed to a lack of jobs and secondary education , leading to migration , migrating mainly to Nicosia and Limassol . During
3384-489: The island. Since the land around the monastery did not yield, in 1950 the Metropolis of Kyrenia decided to abandon it, and the buildings fell into disrepair. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the (bi-communal) Technical Committee on Cultural Heritage in Cyprus, and EU started conservation works to St Panteleimon monastery on 9 October 2015. The village hosts a military camp, and some of its houses are used for military personnel and their families. Until recently
3456-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
3528-640: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek
3600-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and
3672-512: The monastery was in a closed military zone. In the 1990s the area was a major military encampment and travellers on the road from Kormakitis to Nicosia were liable to be stopped at a checkpoint at Myrtou. The area saw extensive fighting in 1974. Myrtou is at the high point of the lowest pass through the Kyrenia mountains in the area and once through the pass, there is a clear run to Nicosia and thence Famagusta. It came within range of artillery in
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#17328016894863744-470: The mountains above Lapithos, Contemporary reports show that during the August cease fire, the Greek and Turkish armies were only 100 yards apart. Separated by a thin line of British soldiers who had orders not to open fire. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ )
3816-614: The new Turkish name Koruçam was made up after 1974 for political reasons. Originally from Lebanon and Syria, today's Maronite community in Cyprus was shaped by four successive waves of emigration that started in the 8th century. With the Islamic conquests radiating outward from the Arab Peninsula, many Maronites abandoned Syria and Lebanon and settled in Cyprus. In 938, the destruction of St Maron's Monastery in Lebanon prompted
3888-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks
3960-536: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It
4032-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
4104-659: The patron saint of the village the Church, construction started in 1900. The designs and plans of the church were prepared by the Maltese architect Fenec and the Maltese Civil Engineer Cafiero. The inhabitants of the village offered donations for the construction of the church. The church constituted as the official church of the Maronite Church of Cyprus, prior 1974. Today, Saint George's Church
4176-401: The people working at the monastery formed a new village nearby, namely Myrtou. The feast of St Panteleimon is 27 July. Formerly, worshippers from all over Cyprus and even adjacent Asia Minor (before 1922) came to visit St Panteleimon monastery on that day. In 1765 the fact of crowds being here on that day from all over Cyprus was used by Khalil, governor of Kyrenia, to hatch a plot to take over
4248-464: The same place today you can find the Agiasma (holy water) of St Panteleimon. At first the two monks built a small church and two rooms for themselves. An icon of St Panteleimon was placed in the church together with his relics for believers to visit. The monastery is said to have been founded around 1600 A.D. The church has been greatly altered and enlarged and around 17th-18th centuries the original nave
4320-560: The school year 1999–2000, the Kormakitis Primary School was forced to close down, due to a lack of pupils, providing evidence of Kormakitis's declining young population. In 2006, TRNC officials announced that Maronites from the village of Kormakitis have been given an opportunity to return to the village. This has been made possible by the fact that the houses and properties in question at Kormakitis, were not seized by Turkish settlers and Turkish Cypriots during
4392-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
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#17328016894864464-613: The village. Kormakitis has a hot Semi-arid climate with long, dry and hot summers and cool winters with mixed weather of sunny spells and rain. Several churches and chapels have been built within Kormakitis and the surrounding fields. These churches and chapels belong to the Maronite Church , a denomination of the Catholic Church . Saint George's Church, located within Kormakitis was built in 1930. Devoted to
4536-532: The village. In 1962, the village school was constructed, which was able to enrol 210 students and employ seven teachers. In 1965, the village was connected to the electric grid and houses were connected to water mains for the first time. Following years of intercommunal violence , on 15 July 1974, there was an attempted coup d'état led by the Greek military junta to unite the island with Greece . The coup ousted president Makarios III and replaced him with pro- enosis nationalist Nikos Sampson . On 20 July 1974,
4608-570: Was 278, plus another 20 in the monastery. Myrtou's population grew to 710 at independence in 1960, The majority of the people living at Myrtou were farmers cultivating their fields or raising sheep, goats and cattle. Other were working at Nicosia or Xeros. Of course you could find carpenters, mechanics, butchers, storekeepers and so on. After 1974, Turkish Cypriots from Androlykou in Paphos District settled in Myrtou. The population in 2011
4680-684: Was 872 a drop from 1,037 recorded in 2006. About a mile from Myrtou, to the south, lies Karpasia , a Maronite village, whose church is of ancient foundation but later much rebuilt. Myrtou village owes its development to its monastery of the St Panteleimon . The monastery played an important socio-economic role in the development of the village and the area in general. The story of the monastery's foundation has not been recorded, however, according to tradition, two monks from Lapithos, called Dorotheos and Dositheos, left their monastery of St Panteleimon at Mount Athos and returned to Cyprus to start
4752-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
4824-568: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of
4896-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
4968-446: Was demolished and rebuilt with a remarkable loggia of pointed arches and vaulting (south side). Between the nave and the loggia is the chapel of St Panteleimon of an ancient date. Gradually the monastery grew bigger, acquiring property, becoming one of the richest monasteries of the island, offering jobs to the people of the villages around the area. The monastery possessed many fields, used for cultivation, sheep, goats and cattle. Later
5040-420: Was originally built near Cape Kormakitis, but because of raids the village was moved to its current location. The new location of the village was chosen because it provided better protection against raids and contained an ample supply of water and lush vegetation for agriculture and livestock. During the period of 1191–1489, the village of Kormakitis was one of the richest fiefs of the island, which belonged to
5112-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
5184-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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